The making of Konoko and Kantor
by Cyblade Silver
Summary: Oni AU. Mai and Muro Hasegawa are growing up on the streets together.
1. Orphan, Survivor

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Disclaimer: I am not Bungie, GOD Games, or any of the other people who own Oni. Therefore, it is not mine. This Disclaimer was brought to you by the Department of Redundancy Department. This is an AU.

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The making of Konoko and Kantor

Mai Hasegawa, nine year-old street urchin and unknowing victim of the World Coalition Government, tucked the bottle of stolen medicine into an inner pocket in her threadbare clothes. Her twin brother Muro would need this medicine if he was going to have any hope of getting better. Muro had come down with a strange illness when they were both six, one that made it nearly impossible for him to retain body heat.

The worst part of the illness was that it sometimes made him cough up blood. Mai hoped that this new batch of medicine would cure her brother, but she had grown painfully used to disappointments over the last three years. Mai darted into the shack where she and Muro had been staying for as long as either of them could remember. Muro was in the same place that Mai had left him, laying on the pile of stolen clothes and blankets that were the only things keeping him warm.

Or at least less cold. Muro was shivering again, and Mai was already thinking of places where she could swipe another blanket for him. There was dried blood smeared on his chin and lips, more of it than there had been when she'd left, so Mai knew he'd been coughing again.

"Muro?"

Muro's still-bright green eyes opened. "Mai?" he groaned, setting off another fit of coughing.

"Shhh, don't try to talk." Mai took out the bottle of medicine. "I've got some more meds for you."

Muro nodded weakly. Mai walked over to his makeshift bed, opened the newest bottle of medicine, and poured about half the dull green liquid into his mouth. For a few seconds, it seemed as if the new medicine would work, but then Mai saw Muro start to twitch spasmodically. His eyes grew wide and panicked, mouth opening in a silent scream._ As if he can't – Oh God!_

"Muro!"

Mai grabbed him under his thin shoulders, pulling her brother out from under his collection of covers. Only his lower legs were still covered, and Mai moved her hands so that she now held Muro's left shoulder with her left hand and supported his head with her right. Muro heaved, great quantities of bright red blood spilling out of his mouth. _Not again, please not again,_ Mai begged silently. She had searched long and hard for that stupid bottle of medicine, hoping it would make Muro better._ Stupid meds,_ she thought bitterly, throwing the container against the wall to shatter and land among the remains of many, many others of its kind.

As soon as Muro had calmed down, Mai tucked her brother back under the covers she had collected for him.

"I'll be back soon, okay? Try to get some sleep," Mai said, stroking her brother's dark purple hair.

"Cold," Muro moaned weakly, shivering.

"I know, I'm going to get you a new blanket."

Mai saw Muro's eyes close. She didn't know if he was really sleeping or just faking it so she wouldn't worry, but she hoped he would at least get somerest. Mai made sure to be quiet on her way out, not wanting to disturb Muro if he really _was_ sleeping. Mai, since she had been sneaking around this place for almost her whole life, knew all the secret hiding places in the city where she lived. She used them to avoid the notice of those weird guys, both the ones who wore that armor that had the letters "TCTF" on it, and the other guys that wore the tan armor and talked about something called the Syndicate.

As Mai walked, or occasionally ran, through the streets of her hometown, she was already planning to swipe one of the thicker blankets from the store she'd seen on her way home. Once she managed to get inside the store, Mai headed directly to the place that the blankets were piled. There were a lot of them, and Mai figured that whoever ran the store wouldn't miss just one. What Mai didn't know was that she had been spotted, by the person who ran the store no less. Mai's concern for her brother was starting to make her careless.

When she felt someone grab her left arm, Mai reacted on instinct, an instinct honed by a lifetime on the street. She slammed her fist down on the spot where she felt the pressure of the hand holding her.

"Ahhh! You damned stupid brat!"

Mai didn't stop to exchange insults with the jerk, instead hauling tail out of that shop as fast as her legs would move. She had her prize, but was inwardly cursing herself for not being more alert. _I should have seen that moron before he got me! Stupid, Mai. That was really stupid._ She sighed, lately her brother's condition had been occupying her thoughts more than making sure that they were both fed, or staying away from the TCTF and those Syndicate guys. That wasn't good.

Once Mai got back to the place she and Muro called home, she was weary. Mai felt as if she could curl up beside Muro and sleep for the rest of the day. But first things first, Muro still needed to eat, and he would need some water after all the blood he had just lost. Mai walked over to where she had stashed the food and bottled water she'd stolen. Mai had made sure to take foods that wouldn't need any special storage. Mostly crackers and other stuff like that.

Picking up an open box of crackers and a half-full bottle of water, Mai walked back over to Muro's bed. She'd already covered him with the new blanket, and he wasn't shivering as badly as he had been doing when she left.

"Thanks, Mai," Muro said quietly, trying not to irritate his throat.

"Of course." Mai smiled. "Do you think you could hold down some water?"

Muro nodded, and Mai sat down by his head and tipped the bottle so that the water poured into his mouth. After Muro was done drinking, Mai gave him some of the crackers she was holding. When they were both finished eating, Mai put the box of crackers back where it was supposed to be. Then, shoving her own meager pile of blankets over to Muro's much larger one; Mai curled up and fell asleep.


	2. A different view of fire

Later that night, while both of them were fast asleep, someone was sneaking into their home. It was the owner of the shop that Mai had stolen the blanket from. His name was Cristopher, and he intended to get his property back. When Chris found it, lying on top of what was obviously a large pile of blankets, he fumed.

The brat already had as many blankets as she could ever possibly need, why in the hell was she going around stealing more?! Whatever the reason, Chris didn't really give a damn. Walking over to the huge pile of blankets, Chris heard something. It sounded like… a cough? _The hell? Blankets don't cough, and that kid that stole it sounded pretty damn healthy to me._

The coughs were getting louder, and Chris backed away, knowing that someone would probably come in to check on whoever was sick. A smaller pile of blankets that Chris hadn't taken any notice of when he'd come in was moving.

"Muro!" a little girl's voice cried.

Chris watched, as the little girl rolled the blankets off of what Chris was just now realizing was another person. The person was obviously very sick, and Chris was beginning to understand why the kid had stolen all those blankets. The coughing eventually subsided, and Chris stepped further back into the shadows, hoping not to be spotted.

"Muro, are you all right now?"

"Yeah," whispered a voice that sounded like it belonged to a little boy. "Thanks, Mai."

Mai, so the kid's name was Mai. Chris watched as Mai tucked Muro back in, turning and walking out of their little shack only when he was sure they were both asleep.

He was beginning to regret calling the TCTF.


	3. Normality

Mai yawned, sitting up and rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. Muro sounded like he was doing better, and at least he'd stopped coughing. Still, Mai decided to check on him. Walking over to him, Mai pressed her hand against his right cheek. Muro was about the same temperature as when she checked him last night, and he wasn't shivering again, so that was good. Some mornings, Mai would wake up to find Muro had gotten colder during the night, so she would have to go out and risk breaking into a store for a new blanket.

"Good morning, Muro."

"Mmmm, morning Mai," Muro yawned.

Mai smiled as she watched Muro settle back into his bed. He really needed his sleep, but Mai still wanted to make sure he was okay. It was what she had been doing for the last three years. Her stomach growled, reminding her that she hadn't eaten anything yet. Muro must have been hungry too, since Mai knew that he was almost too weak to get up on his own.

Heading over to the cracker stash, Mai decided to try some new medicine that she hoped would cure her brother. Or at least help him get better soon. Once they had finished eating, Mai gave Muro a quick kiss on the temple, and headed out into the swiftly breaking dawn.

Mai made her way through the shadows and back-allies, until she was sure that she was far enough away that she would be able to loose anyone who might try to follow her home. Mai had a number of places that she got Muro's medicine from, and she never went to the same place twice, it was one of the things that had kept her and Muro from being caught by those TCTF guys.

There seemed to be more of them around than normal, so Mai made sure to be more careful than she usually was. Once they were all gone, Mai stepped out of her hiding place, making sure not to appear to be hiding anything. Walking like the people she had seen out on the streets, Mai headed for a small store called Korowin's General Store. No one had ever noticed her in there, so Mai found it a little disconcerting that everyone in the store was looking at her.

When one of the people noticed that she was looking their way, they would quickly turn the other way. Mai knew that she was being watched, but she didn't know why.


	4. Regrets

"She's inside," Jerod Thorse a raw recruit into the TCTF's field division, said, clicking off his radio.

"Good work, Thorse," Captain Jeremy Hawsen nodded.

Korowin's general store was a pretty good place to go if you didn't want to be found, since most of the people shopping there tended to ignore you if you weren't actively threatening them. The two TCTF agents were dressed in civilian clothes, so as to avoid making a scene in the store and most likely losing the girl they were pursuing.

The only thing that either of them knew about her was that she was about eight or nine years old and that she had purple hair and green eyes. While having purple hair wasn't very common in Neo-Tokyo, it wasn't entirely unheard of either.

Judging by the way the shop owner had described her, this kid wasn't someone who could afford any kind of hair dye or things like that. So the coloring was most likely natural. Once they were inside the store, Jerod and Jeremy both started looking around.

Both men knew that it was important for them to appear to be just another pair of everyday shoppers, so they were careful about how often they looked at the other people shopping. One of those people was walking over to where Jerod was standing, pretending to look at cooking utensils.

"Did you see that little girl who just came in?" the old woman asked him.

"Huh?" Thorse responded, confused. "What about her?"

"She comes here every so-often, looks around without buying anything, and just walks back out again." The old woman looked sad. "I really think she doesn't have anyone in the world. I've tried to get her to come home with me, so she'd at least have some kind of family. But every time I try to approach her, she runs off."

"What does she look like?" Thorse asked, thinking that this kid might be the one he and the Captain had been sent out to look for.

"She's a sweet looking little girl," the old woman said, sounding wistful. "She has short, kind of messy purple hair, and she also has the prettiest green eyes I've seen in some time."

Thorse nodded, that was almost the exact description of the kid that he and Hawsen had been looking for. The old woman shook her head sadly, walking away. Thorse knew that using his radio would be too conspicuous, so Thorse started heading for the stacks of neatly folded blankets.


	5. Watching and Waiting

Mai stood before the shelves of medicine, wondering which one she should take this time. Most of them were just for colds and stuff like that, so Mai didn't even bother giving those a second glance. Mai wandered around in the medical section, just trying to think of something that might help Muro.

Just as she was about to leave, to give up on this place and try one of her other 'suppliers', Mai's finely tuned danger-sense went off. There was someone watching her. Sure, there had been people watching her almost all the time she had been in this store, but Mai had learned from hard experience never to ignore her instincts. This person, whoever they were, was setting off her radar big time.

Mai casually walked to the end of the shelf of medicine, slipping a quick glance over her shoulder. Sure enough, someone was sticking their head out from behind the shelving unit facing the one holding the meds. They weren't being too suspicious, but Mai had had a lot of experience with spotting people who were following her.

Ducking behind the same shelving unit that her tail was hiding behind, Mai saw him peeking around the shelf, looking for her. Mai looked at him, wondering if he was one of those morons from the orphanage that had been trying to pick her up. He was kind of a big guy, strong looking, and the way he was starting slowly to move forward when he realized he couldn't see her anymore told Mai that he meant business.

She ducked behind the shelf just as he stepped in front of it, walking quickly away from the medical section. Mai knew that running inside a store would only attract attention, so she would have to get out of here, and also lose the guy following her before she got home.


	6. The chase is on

Captain Hawsen was starting to wonder if this assignment was going to be just another one of those wild goose chases that sometimes came up. Hawsen leaned against a shelving unit and let his eyes lazily rove over the other shoppers that wandered into his field of view. No one was looking at him, and Hawsen was becoming bored with pretending to shop.

Just as he was about to move to another area of the store, a kid walked right past Hawsen's line of sight. The first thing that jumped out at him was that this kid had bright purple hair. Hawsen followed her, ducking behind shelves whenever she looked his way. This had to be the right kid, Hawsen could feel it. Thorse came up to him right then.

"I take it you saw the kid?" Thorse asked.

"Yeah."

"Watch it, she's a sly one. She even managed to spot me when I was tailing her."

"I'll keep that in mind," Hawsen said.

The two agents quickly made their way out of the store. Once they were outside, Thorse was the first to spot her.

"She's rabbiting," Thorse said, not surprised at all by her reaction.

Without another word, the two agents gave chase.


	7. Running Home

Mai zigzagged all over the street, ducking into shadows and hiding behind corners. She knew that someone was following her, but she had had to lose tails before, so she wasn't too worried. Mai was more concerned about the fact that she hadn't been able to find any new meds for Muro.

Suddenly, someone grabbed her from behind. Without even thinking about it, Mai bit down hard on the arm wrapped around her chest. With a yelp, the man holding her let go and Mai ran flat-out away from him.

"Thorse!" Another man's voice called from somewhere to her left.

Mai veered hard right, not wanting to meet the other man coming to help that Thorse guy. Mai was starting to worry a little now, since she was drawing ever closer to the place where she and Muro were staying, Mai would either have to lose Thorse and his crony before she got back to her house, or she would have to go past it and double-back once she had thrown them off her trail. Mai was starting to think she would have to go with the second option, when Thorse and his buddy suddenly broke off and left.

Mai took a deep breath, trying to calm her racing heart. Mai knew that she probably wasn't home free just yet, and she suspected that Thorse and his buddy were waiting somewhere just out of sight. She wouldn't give those jerks the satisfaction of being led right to her and Muro's house.

Mai turned in exactly the opposite direction, and started walking like she had somewhere to go. Careful not to look around too much, or appear unduly interested in what if anything was behind her, Mai continued on through the town. She ducked into an abandoned, dilapidated house, and waited. After about twenty or thirty minutes, Mai ducked out the back door and took a long, circuitous route back to her house.

Forty minutes later, Mai slipped back into the old shack that she and Muro shared. Mai saw that Muro was asleep. Walking over, she patted his side through the blankets and sighed softly, flopping down next to him.

"No luck today. Sorry." Mai perked up a little. "But I did manage to outwit another couple of morons who tried to follow me home." Muro shifted in his sleep. "One of their names was Thorse, isn't that funny? I mean, what kind of a name is 'Thorse'?" Mai yawned. "Anyway, I'm going to settle down for a nap, and then try my luck somewhere else."

Mai's pile of blankets had already been pushed up next to Muro's, but before she could lay down and drift off to sleep, the front door blew open and Thorse and his crony, followed by some guy Mai hadn't seen before, came stomping right into her house. Mai stiffened, she thought she'd lost these morons!

"You led us on a good chase, kid," Thorse said, grinning as if this had all been an interesting game.

It was probably the sound of the door being kicked open, or maybe it was just Thorse's big mouth, but Muro suddenly woke up. He sat up suddenly.

"Mai, wha-what's going on?"

"Oh, so your name is Mai," Thorse's crony said, giving Muro a quick once-over.

Mai didn't want to give them any more information than what they already had, so she didn't say Muro's name. One of the guys, not Thorse or his crony but the one Mai hadn't seen before, moved forward to try and grab her. Muro saw this, and quickly stood up. No matter how sick he was, nobody threatened his sister and got away with it.

"You stay away from my sister, you jerk!" Muro yelled defiantly, but was overcome by a fit of coughing before he could actually do anything.

Muro felt someone wrap an arm around him from behind, then there was a soft sting in his neck, and everything went dark.

Mai saw her brother go limp in the arms of Thorse's crony; something purple pressed against his neck. The guy lifted Muro like he was a rag doll, slinging her brother over his shoulder. Mai lost it then, shouting her brother's name, she charged headlong at the man holding her brother. Hoping to trip him up, or stagger him, or do anything that might make him let go, so she could grab Muro and run.

Someone grabbed her from behind, and Mai felt the same sting in her neck that Muro had only seconds earlier.


	8. Orders

Thorse looked around the house, no wonder the kid had been stealing blankets, what with having a sick brother to take care of and all. Hawsen's comm-link went off just then, and the Captain was quick to answer it.

-"What's the mission status?"- Commander Griffin asked.

"We've managed to find the kid," Hawsen said. "With DeFalco's help, we managed to take her down." Hawsen shook his head, seeming to gather his thoughts. "Turns out she had a sick brother to take care of, his name is Muro by the way, and that was why she stole all those blankets."

"She also seems to have had quite a large collection of medicines," Thorse commented, looking at the shattered remains of several bottles of the stuff.

-"Good work,"- Griffin said over the comm. -"Bring them to TCTF headquarters."-

Lance DeFalco, still holding Muro, began to check the kid. Muro was obviously sick, but the way he had stood up and tried to protect his sister despite his illness said a lot about how close they were. Griffin's words made him stop and look up, wondering if he had heard right. Apparently DeFalco wasn't the only one who thought that.

"HQ?" Hawsen asked. "Isn't that a little- extreme? It was just some stolen blankets and a few bottles of medicine." Okay, so from what he and Thorse had seen, there were more than a _few_ bottles of medicine.

-"You have your orders,"- Griffin said flatly. -"I expect to see the three of you as soon as you get back."-

"Roger that, sir," Hawsen said. "Over and out."

The three TCTF officers turned to look at each other.

"Do either of you have any idea why Griffin would want these two brought to HQ?" DeFalco asked.

"No idea," Hawsen said. "But orders are orders." He sighed heavily. "Let's get going."


	9. Returns and Revelations

Dr. Kerr closed his eyes, sinking back into his chair with an expression of mixed exhaustion and regret. He had been hoping that his niece and nephew would be able to stay free of the TCTF, something he hadn't managed to do himself. Griffin, however, seemed pleased more than anything.

"I have to admit, those two were very clever. Being able to hide from us for that long, and with an invalid to take care of," Griffin muttered. "I'll have to keep that in mind."

An invalid. Muro. Kerr hung his head, berating himself again for not finding out sooner that Griffin had planned to infect Muro with the X-13 engineered viral strain. The only reason Muro had even survived was because of his Chrysalis; the virus was designed to kill a normal person in a week or less.

"Dr. Kerr, come with me to the labs. You're about to get a couple of new subjects."

Kerr followed Griffin, wishing that this entire day was nothing more than a bad dream. Once the two of them had reached the TCTF labs, three TCTF Agents were standing there waiting for them. Two of them, Lance DeFalco and Jerod Thorse, were holding the limp bodies of Kerr's niece and nephew. Kerr noticed that DeFalco was holding a piece of white cloth against Muro's mouth.

"Dr. Kerr," DeFalco turned quickly to face him. "I got here as soon as I could," the agent sounded both relieved and frightened at the same time. "I did everything I could think of, but I don't have your training or expertise."

"What's the situation?" Griffin asked, ignoring DeFalco entirely and instead looking to Hawsen.

"Sir, Muro is in urgent need of medical attention," Hawsen said.

"Symptoms?" Griffin asked.

"Muro has been coughing up blood on and off ever since we found him, sir," Hawsen said. "He is also suffering from a severe drop in body temperature."

"Dr. Kerr, get to work. I expect to have Muro cured by the end of the day." Griffin turned and quickly strode out of the labs.

"Jerk," DeFalco muttered, once Griffin was out of earshot.

DeFalco quickly handed Muro over to Kerr.

"I hope you can do more for him than I did," DeFalco said, handing Muro over to Kerr.

"I'll certainly do all I can." Kerr turned, placing Muro's unconscious form on a nearby med-bed.

DeFalco bit his lip, thinking. "I have a heating blanket that I'm not using right now, I'll go get it for you," DeFalco said, and quickly hurried off.

Kerr laid a hand on Muro's forehead, feeling the young boy's body temperature the same way he would if Muro had had a fever. Muro was cold, far too cold. Out of the corner of his left eye, Kerr saw Jared putting Mai on another nearby table.

Lance returned quickly, carrying the heating blanket he'd mentioned earlier. Without a word, he quickly plugged it in, spread it out over Muro's shivering body, and turned it up to maximum heat.

"Thank you, Lance," Dr. Kerr said.

"Yeah. You- you're going to be able to help him, right?"

Kerr sighed. "I'll do what I can."


	10. Dreamworld

Muro felt like he was drifting, somewhere between life and death. Everything was black, and it was so cold. He couldn't tell if there was anyone standing near him, but Muro felt like he was alone.

"Mai? Mai, where are you?"

Muro could hear his voice echoing hollowly all around him, as if there were a thousand others all calling out with his voice. Muro didn't like how small and afraid that made him feel.

"Mai!"

Again, only the hollow echoes answered him. Deciding that getting lost was better than standing around here listening to the echoing silence, Muro turned and walked off into the blackness surrounding him. Muro wasn't sure how long or how far he had walked; everything looked the same, but he was starting to catch glimpses of a far-off light.

Muro ran toward the light. As he got closer, Muro saw that the light was really two separate lights, one bright pink, the other a brighter purple. Then Muro noticed a faint red light. Muro held up his hands and looked at them, surprised to see that the red light was actually coming from him. 

Sure enough, a faint red glow was running up and down his arms, curling around his fingers, and flowing back over his hands. Putting his hands down, Muro reached out to touch the purple light, feeling that there was something familiar about it. As he reached out his right hand to touch it, Muro saw that the purple light was reaching out to him, mirroring his own action.

When they touched, Muro felt as if he had grabbed onto a high-voltage line. It was like more energy than he could ever hope to contain was being pumped into his body without the slightest regard for this fact. Like his entire body was a live wire, greedily siphoning the extra power into himself. At the same time, Muro saw that the purple light was starting to fade. As it did, Muro's eyes began to resolve details of the purple light.

The first thing Muro saw was that the light wasn't really a light at all, but a person who was glowing purple, much like he was still glowing faintly red. As the purple light started to fade, Muro saw his own red glow intensifying, and at the same time Muro saw more and more of the person beneath the light. In fact, Muro was starting to recognize the person hidden beneath the purple light…


	11. Thoughtscape

"Mai, it's you!"

She smiled brightly. "Muro! I didn't know you were here." Mai looked her brother over. "You look better."

"Yeah, I think I feel better, too."

Mai looked around. "We're not awake, are we."

This was more of a statement than a question, but Muro answered it anyway. "No, I don't think we are."

Each was staying close to the other, since neither of them wanted to risk getting lost in the black nothingness that surrounded them. As soon as they started walking, though, the black nothingness started to change. The twins glanced down, and saw that they were now walking on discernable ground.

Muro scuffed his foot against it, from the way it moved he thought it was grass. Looking ahead, the twins saw the sky starting to lighten ahead of them. The entire area was changing as they walked through it, in fact, becoming more and more… well, normal. In fact, there was now no trace of the empty, cold place that Muro had first found himself in.

It was kind of pretty now, like a park that he could remember Mai and himself spending time in before he'd gotten too sick to do anything but stay in bed.


	12. Explorers

"This is weird," Muro said, looking around at their new surroundings.

"You can say that again," Mai said.

"This is really, really weird."

Muro and Mai climbed to the top of the hill that they had been standing in front of when the new landscape had first appeared. It wasn't a high hill by anyone's standards, but it was enough to sit on and look down on the landscape. And, for the moment, that was all the two of them needed.

The landscape itself was pretty flat, all except for the lone mountain off in the far distance. The mountain was tall and snowcapped, and Muro wondered what it would be like to climb that mountain. A few seconds later, Mai started climbing back down the hill. As if she had heard his thoughts, and wanted to see the view for herself. Muro followed her.

The being made of pink light followed both of them. Muro wondered for a few minutes what it was, then decided that it was probably more important to find out where they were than what was following them. The two of them made it to the base of the mountain, then realized that they had no realistic way for them to climb up it.


	13. Adversarial Relationship

"What do we do now, Mai?" Muro asked. "It's not like we have any mountain climbing equipment here that we can use."

Mai crossed her arms; her usual pose when she was thinking. "I guess we just have to find a trail, then."

"A trail?" Muro raised an eyebrow. "What good is a trail going to be on this kind of mountain?"

Mai stuck her tongue out at him. "At least I'm trying to think of a way to get up there and not giving up when things look hard."

"Who's giving up?" Muro demanded. "I'm just asking how some dinky little trail's supposed to be of any help in climbing a mountain this high."

Mai sighed, and they both started up the trail that had just shown itself. It was tough at first, to know which way they wanted to go to get to the top of the mountain. Every trail looked the same, and they all seemed to lead nowhere. _This is stupid, there's no way we're going to get up there by going down one of these._

Oh, try to think positively for a change, Muro. We'll find a way.

Wait, Mai? You can hear me?

Of course I can, you're talking to me.

Uhm, no I'm not. Muro turned to face his sister, making it abundantly clear that his lips weren't moving._ I was just thinking._

Whoa, that weird. I thought we were both talking. Mai tilted her head, considering something. _Do you think we'll still be able to do this when we wake up?_

We might be, I'm not sure. Muro smiled. _I'd be really great if we could, though._

Both twins turned back to the mountain, and found that there was now a staircase there. The stairs looked like they had been carved right out of the rock.

__

What do you want to bet that if we go up all those stairs, we'll get to the top?

I'm not going to bet with you, Muro. You cheat.

I do not.

Do so!

Do not!

Do so a million!

Do not a thousand-billion!

In the end, they stuck out their tongues and blew raspberries at each other. Then both of them started to laugh. It wasn't helping them to get anywhere, but blowing off steam like this was making them feel a lot better about being stranded in this strange place.


End file.
